Rolls-Royce SUV Still Under Consideration: CEO

Get AutoGuide.com in your Inbox

Like AutoGuide.com on Facebook

A utility vehicle from Rolls-Royce to fight Bentley’s upcoming crossover is still possible.

“We are intensively thinking about entering the SUV segment,” CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes told Bloomberg during the Frankfurt Motor Show. Early this year, Bentley approved the SUV project first seen during the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.

Mueller-Oetvoes didn’t share a timeline last week, but past reports suggest the company could be aiming to market the vehicle by 2017. Such a move will be important if BMW wants to compete in the top-tier utility vehicle market. Volkswagen Group could have two vehicles in the segment in the near future; one from Bentley and the other from Lamborghini.

If the company decides to answer Bentley’s big move, it raises questions about the chassis BMW will use and which engine would power it. BMW has ben toying with the idea of building an X7, which could serve to spread the costs of building an ultra-luxury SUV.